Yesterday I organized my pantry. I got rid of expired food, bread crumbs and Cream of whatever soup that I know I'll never use. After throwing this stuff away, my aunt who helps run a food pantry said, "Don't throw that stuff away!" She told me take all that stuff...except the expired stuff...to a food pantry! So don't do what I did!

But you can clean out your pantry like I did and you will feel great! I have too many syrups because I couldn't see through the mess to know I had syrup. And don't look at the Cheerios...One small box is left over from camping and another was give to us. We won't be buying Cheerios for a while. My worst shelf was the canned good shelf. I decided to organize that one by rows. The first row is mac n cheese, rice and other pasta meals, the second is sauces, gravies and ketchup, the third is syrup and dressing, the fourth is canned meals like Chef Boyardee, chili, and soups, the fourth is vegetables like canned corn, artichokes, red peppers, etc (not a big canned veggie person), the fifth row is chicken and beef stock. I don't have to deal with spices or baking goods in my pantry because they are in a lazy susan in the cabinets.

I took everything out first and lined each shelf with contact paper. It brightened up the whole pantry because every time I slid a can across the painted shelf, it left a dark mark and I had dark marks all over the shelves. This is so much better! Don't have lovely visions of me having all kinds of time to do this. I did it while I talked on the phone with my brother's ex-girlfriend. I had to pick up the kids and then finish the project with the kids running around with their friends asking and needing and wanting. I just made it a priority and focused on it. It just wasn't a priority before.

It's going to be a busy weekend with the kids home half day today and off tomorrow because of our carnival weekend. I'll probably clean out the fridge and put my clutter drawers on hold because I'm at a lost as to how to organize them. One book I'm reading says I should use drawer dividers. Containers don't seem to work. They are rarely the right size and then they overflow. I have to figure out where to find drawer dividers. Or maybe I just need different containers. We'll see.

The meal planning has been going well. I realized I sometimes don't feel like the meal that is planned for the day, so I will jump ahead to the next meal. I seem to rarely exactly follow it, but that is not the point. The point is that I have all the ingredients and the plan to make a list of meals for two weeks at a time. It is so freeing not to have to worry about what the heck to make every day. Last night we had paninis and they were yummy!

Last night I helped set up for Grandparent's Day. Right now as I type they are getting ready to celebrate mass with 377 Grandparents and about 357 students, not to mention whoever else goes to that mass and the teachers. There was a big panic as to how they would all fit. I've been praying about it a lot because at this point, it's out of our control. I'm hoping to see future Grandparent's Days split up somehow. Although, Ted reminds me, I won't be in charge of this next year!